Letters to the editor for Oct. 20, 2011

Union Democrat staff

Published Oct 20, 2011 at 06:31AM / Updated Aug 23, 2015 at 08:33PM

Global Warming

To the Editor:

In response to Tom Tischler's Oct. 12 letter regarding global warming, I would direct him to The Oregon Institute of Medicine and Science petition which reads, "There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, etc, is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate. Moreover, there is substantiated evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth." Thus far, over 31,000 American scientists have signed this petition.

As for that "paid shill", Roy Spencer, he was the Head Scientist for Climate Studies for NASA and continues as a Senior Scientist.

The fact is that the preponderance of substantiated evidence is that there is no serious global warming occurring, and the gradual warming we are experiencing since the mid 1800s is a natural phenomena as we came out of the Little Ice Age.

I wish Mr. Tischler and others would get their facts straight and stop perpetuating myths!

Dexter Hardcastle, Ph.D.

Angels Camp

Reconstructionism

To the Editor:

Regarding the "Small church in national spotlight" article that ran Oct. 7 in The Union Democrat. In a word, scary.

Reconstructionism represents the extreme right wing of the extreme religious right. It is they who want to scrap the Constitution - in its entirety - and reconstruct (deconstruct?) American society based solely on biblical law (theonomy - God's law). For years they have been trying their best to change pluralism from a nine-letter word to a four-letter word. To them, there is only one way - the way of scripture. They would strip our country of government as we know it. People would be accountable only to church authority. Reconstructionists would eliminate taxation and replace it with mandatory tithing. All social services would be provided by the church and local communities. Municipal police would be replaced by local militias.

What stands out by far is the theonomist view of capital punishment. The preferred method is stoning. According to the Reconstructionists stoning has … well … a nice biblical ring to it. To rationalize their belief, Reconstructionist par excellence Gary North listed five reasons in support of stoning: stones are plentiful and are available at no cost; no single blow can be traced to any one person, thus reducing the feelings of guilt; stoning is a reflection of the collective responsibility for crime prevention; executions should be public events; and, most important, stoning is symbolic of God's casting Satan to the ground as prophesied in Ezekiel 28:17.

Alternatively - perhaps in the interest of variety? - the death penalty also could be administered by three other biblically sanctioned techniques: by burning, by hanging and by the sword.

Scary!

Irwin Schwartz

Sonora

Sidestepping Congress

To the Editor:

I have just heard President Obama publicly announce in comments regarding his current $450 Billion "Jobs" Bill that "we can't wait for Congress," and that he has instructed his lieutenants to go through the Bill to find all the parts of it which can be implemented "administratively."

Our Constitution clearly gives to Congress, and to Congress alone, the power to write, deliberate and vote on Bills. If both houses of Congress pass a Bill, it goes to the President to sign into law or to veto. If vetoed, the Bill goes back to Congress which can vote to override the veto. If the vote succeeds, the Bill becomes law. If not, it is dead. Nowhere in the Constitution does the President have the power to bypass Congress and, effectively, "pass" the Bill or parts of the Bill on his own.

The words of a President who says he is taking the law into his own hands because he "can't wait for Congress" are the words of a dictator.

This President has made a mockery of our Constitution with his network of "Czars" who function without Congressional approval, his encouragement of the EPA's radical rule writing from which even some of his own Democrats in Congress have distanced themselves and the volumes of "regulations" written by bureaucrats in his administration - bureaucrats beholden not to the voters, but ultimately to President Obama.

Now, President Obama makes a public statement that he is taking the law into his own hands because he "can't wait for Congress." If he proceeds to do so, he should be impeached.

George Kellerman

Sonora

Sportsmanship has

always been the goal

To the Editor:

I would like to put the "sportsmanship" issue between Summerville High School and Calaveras High School to rest.

Student athletes are just that, student athletes. They are not professional, nor are they adults. They are growing mentally, physically, and emotionally, and they test the limits on a regular basis. Some are not as coordinated as others and some are not as emotionally mature as others. High school athletics is a great place for student athletes to mature mentally, physically, and emotionally, and practice good sportsmanship. Student athletes miss passes and shots, drop fly balls, strike out, foul opponents, and sometimes make inappropriate comments. Student athletes also do amazing things, such as make shots, catch fly balls and grounders, kick goals, throw touchdown passes, sink putts, spike volleyballs and pick an opponent up after he or she has fallen.

In athletic events, any of the above may happen, sometimes noticeable to the public and sometimes not. These actions may be positive in nature, but sometimes they are not.

When inappropriate issues occur, administrators from opposing schools talk, investigate, and take appropriate actions to resolve those issues. Each principal in the Mother Lode League relies on their counterpart to discipline student athletes as appropriate to their school rules. We have all been there.

The recent editorial about our soccer game with Calaveras High implied sportsmanship is not the goal in athletics. In all high schools, teaching and modeling good sportsmanship is the goal, and always has been. Are there glitches? Yes, but that doesn't change the goal. Glitches lead to teachable moments.

You should have seen the rematch between these two teams on Oct. 4. You would have been as proud of our athletes as Ric Stitt and I were.